Sivin Kit's Garden

The time carved out for corporate worship together through songs, music, movement and prayer was precious. Nothing fancy. I loved the volume of voices filling the atmosphere as we united our hearts and minds on God. Soo-Inn led us in bringing our lives to converse with God’s word – through the Scriptures on the theme of “Grace”. This naturally created vocabulary or us to talk with each other about “stuff”.

The morning devotions and small group discussions were good. My group facilitator Ken Beng did well. I noticed that the dynamics of the groups are enhanced when everyone participates and shares. I was tremendously blessed to hear from other people’s stories.

The openness towards the “wholly other” overflowed rightly towards being open in conversations and prayer with the “human others” which made which integrates the loving God and loving neighbor bit better. “Space” & “Conversations” – we need them both.

Surely a retreat is more than about food … but a lot happens around the table where we eat together

There’s always something special about leaving the environment of the busy city and have some concentrated community life (in this case) in the highlands. The freedom from the stress of routine 21st century Malaysian living points us to that which is better … the best part is when we can do it together with the wider family and friends whom are called by Christ or are still hearing his call.

“Free yourself from a world
that seeks only pleasures and possessions
and bring others to share your freedom.
Set yourself against everything
that makes us slaves
politically, economically, socially.
You have nothing to lose.
…
Through your radical surrender to God
you will be freed
and become a deliverer of others,
a breath of fresh air for those you meet,
a servant of all,
a source of life, expectation and hope.”
- Radical Surrender

It’s was an unexpected “great” beginning … from decoding to dropping eggs – there was a lot of laughter, running around, and trying to win the grandprize – Ken Beng and gang did a wonderful job. The pre-games ping pong was great too! The pictures are still in Day 1.

It’s wonderful to return again to the moments decorating a meaningful 4 days and 3 nights … starting with the journey to our destination. I’ll put up some of my favorites with more commentary later. For now, the FilmLoops gives some quick-view of our time last week. Bob has some here with a great title on Why Some Things Are Worth It?. DB has some beautiful artsy shots here and a thought provoking one here.

This is a first time cooperation between Art4Soul and BLC (we are mainly providing the venue *grin*). For me, this would be an opportunity to hear the stories of others and have a chance to share our stories. Our good friend Soo-Inn will be doing a wrap up at the end *wink*.